The New England Fishery Management Council tabled a proposal last week to encourage the use of “on-demand” and “ropeless” fishing gear in the Atlantic Ocean to protect right whales after industry groups and a Maine lawmaker argued the plan would unduly burden lobster fishermen.
At a Thursday council meeting in Gloucester, Massachusetts, fishermen and industry representatives decried the framework proposal, saying the new fishing gear remains unproven and would further disrupt an industry already facing heavy regulation in a difficult economy.
Earlier in the week, Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat, had also written a letter to NEFMC Executive Director Cate O’Keefe charging that the framework intended to protect endangered right whales from fishing gear entanglements was “premature and unnecessary.” Golden said it runs counter to a congressional mandate that the federal government should suspend any regulations targeting fishing gear until 2028.
The technology, also called “pop-up” gear, relies on lobster traps that sit on the ocean floor with a coiled rope attached to a submerged buoy. The buoy is released from the ocean bottom by an electronic signal from a fishing vessel, allowing it to float to the top where the trap can be pulled in by the attached rope. Traditional lobster gear involves buoys and traps with fixed ropes that run vertically through the water — creating a hazard that could entangle whales.
